5,000 mile itch!

[901Memphis]

Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
Originally Posted By: 901Memphis
I don't have any sludge but here's a pic, I'm trying to clean it up a little.


No sludge but you sure got varnish.



Also there's no varnish on the moving parts what you see is from the pooling of oil that splashes and sits in one place. The valve springs are pristine in the pic as you can see. These engines run pretty warm and the previous owner probably used conventional. The way these engines sit you just have too much oil pooling in the top end.

 

[Red91]

Do you think the synthetic holds up better to the coolant intrusion? I ask because it's common for us to do 5-6 head gasket and/or intake gasket jobs on '95-'05 3100's and 3400's a year.

 

[901Memphis]

I'm not sure but the previous owner of the car was the only owner but he overheated his engine due to the leaking gaskets and when it came time to repair the damage he decided to go with a used engine with approximately the same mileage and he just replaced the gaskets before they put the used engine in.

Hopefully they used the proper problem solver gasket and I'm just being cautious checking for coolant among other things.

I would imagine that a synthetic oil should hold up better to a very small coolant leak but a big leak will wreck anything. Synthetics generally use better basestocks and higher potency additives which should be a good thing for anything trying to contaminate the oil.

From the slow coolant leaks I've seen on uoa they generally have higher metal wear but not extremely standout. I bet Dnewton knows more.

 

[Red91]

I know those engines are fine, as long as they are taken care of. I don't believe we've ever had a comeback in the case that problem solvers were used.

 

[Merkava_4]

Originally Posted By: 901Memphis
Not the from me it was from the previous owner.


My Buick had a previous owner too. PYB was used at on unknown OCI with that owner. Two OCIs back to back at 1700 miles each with MaxLife and the varnish was gone. When they say extra detergents with MaxLife, they're not kidding. The only area the Maxlife couldn't remove varnish from was the underside of the plastic valve covers. Anything that's metal, the MaxLife cleaned spotless. But I'm playing a different game than you guys are. My game is not oil longevity - my game is engine cleanliness. A 5000 mile OCI is not gonna happen with me.

 

[901Memphis]

The tiny little stains that are around the fill hole haven't changed at all using Kendall GT1 or with PP in two 5k oci. Now with PU in there well see if they get any cleaner.

I may go even further on my next oci if my UOA looks good. I have high idle time so interested to see if it got into the oil.

I don't care about varnish unless it's on the valve springs, lifters or cams. Some engines can be spotless except for hot spots there's no sense fighting it. I understand your crazy but if you can't be crazy about varnish on BITOG I guess there's no place for ya anywhere.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
My Buick had a previous owner too. PYB was used at on unknown OCI with that owner. Two OCIs back to back at 1700 miles each with MaxLife and the varnish was gone. When they say extra detergents with MaxLife, they're not kidding.

For me, the "itch" happens based on time, rather than mileage. When the cabs were on the 6,000 mile interval, that was once a month. So, when oil sits in there for a few months, I get a little concerned and have to check the mileage book and make sure that three or four months didn't somehow equal 18,000 to 24,000 miles.